Risk from wild dog baits

[DogsAndTheMob]

I saw a very dingo-like wild dog yesterday morning. The local (Hunter NSW) wild-dog baiting program started last week, so I wonder whether this dog came from a pack which was dispersed when the older pack-members were poisoned.

 

Years ago, my parents lost a pup after she ate a bait or carrion from a baited animal. They were on their own property, several hundred metres from a boundary, and they hadn't put out any baits. They saw her eating something, but were too late to intervene.

 

I'm now worried to walk my dogs in my own paddocks, in case they pick up a bait dropped by a crow or other bird. What do other people do in similar circumstances? Walk their dogs on-lead only? Muzzle their dogs? Don't walk them at all? And for how long after the baiting program ends will the risks persist?

[persephone]

The other week I lost my heart dog Molly to a bait ..transferred by a bird  

the working dogs are muzzled  if they are taken to properties who bait . Aerial baiting , luckily is not done here . Baits done by Gov't & a lot of property owners are counted, buried, and are at marked locations .unused  baits are burned .
Molly's death was caused by a neighbour who just threw baits around   he lost one of his own dogs , so maybe he'll try & think next time. 

1080 lasts for weeks , AFAIK. pray for heavy rain ..that will disperse and break down the 1080.

[DogsAndTheMob]

I'm so sorry for your loss , Persephone! 

 

Thank you for the information. The local baiting program is partially aerial. Participating land-holders are supposed to post notices and most do, but I strongly suspect one neighbour has put out rabbit baits without notice; on one occasion we found dead king-fishers and crows, the local magpie family disappeared and his rabbit problem went away, all within a few weeks.

 

what brand of muzzle do you use?

Edited May 26, 2017 by DogsAndTheMob

[Rozzie]

I lost three of mine when NPs did a bait in the park. Dropped by a carrion carrier. On our property, a fair way from the park. They had gone to the dam for their daily swim. I assume NP put up signs, but not being neighbours, didn't know.

[Scrappi&Monty]

That's awful! 1080 is horrible stuff  so sorry for your loss Persephone! 

I live in the Hunter too, we are semi-rural, and no dingoes around here, (though I saw a little fox hopping across the paddock yesterday) but I didn't know they baited dingoes in the valley. I know they can be a pest, but they were here first  

 

Even though foxes & dingoes are pests, one 'pestier' than the other, I still have a little soft spot for them.... 

Edited May 27, 2017 by Scrappi&Monty

[DogsAndTheMob]

That must have been devastating, Rozzie. I don't think I'd get over a loss like that.

 

Scrappie&Monty, it might be worth checking with long-term-residents of the area. I know there are dingos as far down the valley as Maitland, and I think they would be in the Watagans as well.

 

Lake Macquarie landholders are being encouraged to join the program

 

Aerial baiting is being undertaken in the Merriwa, upper Hunter, Singleton and Dungog areas.

 

I also feel sad for the dingos, although I sympathise with farmers who lose livestock in such a cruel way. The wild dog I saw was a magnificent animal.

Edited May 27, 2017 by DogsAndTheMob

[persephone]

Cruel? Being hunted by dingoes is a gentle death compared to what my Molly went through,believe me.

 

As for muzzles, we have a variety, as we bought some,some were given to us,and some are fixer- uppers

Good quality plastic  greyhound/basket muzzles, or the  squarer wire cage working dog muzzles are what the majority are 

[DogsAndTheMob]

I'm sorry, Persephone; I didn't mean to distress you.

 

it is really a horrible lose-lose situation. I wish somebody would find a humane solution. 

[Tassie]

So very sorry, Perse and Rozzie.

[Scrappi&Monty]

Holy moly. Learn something new every day! We live near Maitland, never knew there were dingoes about here. Our house is the last house in the suburb, and backs onto turf farms, and sheep/cow/horse/alpaca/goat/pig paddocks haha.

I wonder if the farmers here ever get dingo problems. 

I reckon how rare it would be in the Maitland area they shouldn't bother baiting, too cruel! Too risky as well for dogs (and probably people and livestock too, it can't be healthy to hang around poison...) 

I understand the need to get dingo pop under control in some areas with say massive cattle properties, but I do disagree with it... really the dingo was here first, and wiping them out is just going to stuff up the food chain and allow more rabbits etc. also no-one to eat the feral cats which in turn eat all the little native rodents & birds.

but at the same time the dingoes to brutally injure the livestock at times and devastate farmers.  

[DogsAndTheMob]

Friends who live beside the Hunter River near the northern outskirts of Maitland told me they see dingos travelling through their paddocks down to the river. The dingo I saw yesterday was near the intersection of Seaham Rd and Brandy Hill Drive.

[Bob]

Sadly, baiting is an ongoing option for pastoralists trying to reduce the impact of fox, feral dog and dingo. There is a new product on the shelf which can already be used in NSW, Vic, and SA. This product in commonly known as PAPP, it is a quick acting product resulting in death in 45 - 90 minutes. Basically what is does is prevent the dogs haemoglobin from transporting oxygen resulting in asphyxiation. 

 

See below for further information regarding this product.

 

http://www.chemcert.com.au/news/a-new-fox-and-wild-dog-bait-papp

 

[Tempus Fugit]

In Europe, sheep farmers often use liivestock protection dogs, such as Maremmas, to protect flocks from wolves, so I don't suppose they would use baiting - otherwise their dogs would be poisoned.

[Bob]

There are at least two sites in Australia that are doing the same thing. This allows dingos to remain on the land and reduces the numbers of fox, feral cats and dogs and rabbits. This results in more diverse native growth, more pasture for grazing, and reduced impact of agriculture on other native species. A positive move.

[Scrappi&Monty]

Yes, when the dingo population declines, there aren't any predators for the introduced species like  foxes, feral cats etc, so the cats & foxes eat the native small animals into endangerment.  

Ways to protect livestock without harming the dingo population and therefore the ecosystem are a much better move! 

[gillybob]

They used to bait where I used to live, I couldn't let Bob out of sight just in case.

Ive seen what it does to foxes it isn't nice.

East of here in the NPs they bait all the time and its destroying the Quoll populations.

Our property road was at the end of dirt road, people used to bring their unwanted kitten litters and dump them at our gate.

Id say half survived because you could see the damage that they did in the paddocks and hills.

I don't know why they don't shoot them instead of baiting its kinder and quicker.